Welcome to part one of our "Waves" episodes everyone!
This is month one of season one here at Grabbing Back, THE place for all things feminist theory and good chat.
We’re chatting to the amazing Gillian Love about ‘the waves of feminism’; when were they, what were they, did they even exist and what should we, as modern feminists learn or critique about them.
Content warning: discussions touched on homophobia and transphobia - without graphic details.
References and recommendations
This is a list of some of the sources mentioned in this episode, plus other recommended texts on the theme of first and second wave feminism.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, and we recommend them not as a full-throated support of all of their contents, but as representations of particular feminist positions.
Mary Wollestonecraft. 1792. A Vindication of the Rights of Women – The ‘proto-feminist’ text
Sojourner Truth. 1851. ‘Ain’t I A Woman?’ – Speech at the 1851 Akron Women’s Convention – speaking back to white-centric views of womanhood and feminism and arguing for abolition of slavery.
Betty Friedan. 1963. The Feminine Mystique. – Argues that women are not simply fulfilled by the role of housewife and mother.
Shulamith Firestone. 1970. The Dialectic of Sex. – A socialist feminist take on sex, reproduction, and gender relations. Content note: its sections on race are widely critiqued and reflect arguably racist ideology.
Andrea Dworkin. 1974. Woman Hating. – A radical feminist text on the representation of women, including in pornography.
Andrea Dworkin. 1984. Intercourse. – A radical feminist text on sex, heterosexual dynamics, and violence.
Catherine McKinnon. 1989. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State – An examination of the basis of gender inequality through the lens of political and legal theory.
Combahee River Collective Statement. 1977 – A manifesto for Black Feminism, a movement running concurrently to, but somewhat separate from, Second Wave Feminism.
Bell Hooks. 1981. Ain’t I A Woman? Black Women and Feminism. – An influential Black Feminist text.
Kimberlé Crenshaw. 1989. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, Vol. 43, No. 6, pp. 1241-1299 – Highly influential article credited with coining the term ‘intersectionality.’ Important within Black feminism, this concept would go on to be central to the third wave too.
